Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Cameroon Literature in English – Vibrant But Invisible

A Guest Editorial for Palapala Magazine by Dibussi Tande

Anglophone Cameroon writing... is too little known and much underrated... consequently, much that has been written in English in Cameroon and what has been written about writing in English in Cameroon must have the character of a first encounter with the unseen, a getting to know and shedding of light on a dark spot in the literary development of Africa. Ekhard Breitinger.

In 1978, Patrick Sam-Kubam published an article in Abbia (31/33, February 1978, 205-208) in which he lamented about “The paucity of literary creativity in Anglophone Cameroon". In 1997, Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi picked up on the same theme in her seminal book on gender when she also commented about “the paucity of Cameroonian Anglophone writing”. To a certain extent, these two statements, made some two decades apart, reflected and still reflect a reality on the ground. Literature in English speaking Cameroon has not developed at the same pace as other “national” African literatures.

University of Buea's Anti-Pidgin Campaign in Pictures

Pidgin is "the language of playfulness, informality, vulgarity, transgression, trade, celebration, and family." To ask students to "shun it" is to ask them to enter the English-speaking public sphere--which is already fraught in majority-Francophone Cameroon--and not look back.” Dr. Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi - University of Southern Mississippi, USA

 

The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon

By Dibussi Tande

Although Pidgin English is the most widely-spoken language in English-speaking Cameroon, and rivals French as the language of choice in some parts of French-speaking Cameroon (particularly in the Littoral and Western Provinces), it is still treated with scorn and disdain by the Elite who consider it a language for the illiterate masses.

Cameroon English: "Polluted" by Pidgin or French?

Web Polls by Vizu

Dr. Nfah-Abbenyi: The Anti-Pidgin Campaign or the "Cancerous Embrace of National Integration"

Culled from Women's Connection (Volume XXVII, Number 1, pp. 9-10)

A Report from the conference on Africa and the African Diaspora: Agents for Change held at the University at Albany on March 24th, 2006.

Dr. Eloise Briere introduced Keynote speaker, Dr. Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi, feminist, professor, writer and literary critic. ... In Dr. Nfah-Abbenyi’s lecture "English Is Your Friend: Cameroon Anglophone Postcolonial Narratives" she spoke to the audience about post-colonial identities in Africa and the African Diaspora. Drawing on theories of language, she focused on language as a carrier of culture and how it can be used to justify hierarchies.

Language as a Tool for Exclusion: Reflections on Cameroon's National Bilingualism Day

By Dibussi Tande

Today is National Bilingualism Day in Cameroon. I didn’t even know that such a day existed until I read about it in the Monday, January 30, 2006 online edition of the Government-owned daily, Cameroon Tribune.

According to an article in the newspaper titled "Bilingualism is still a Challenge”, this day was instituted because,

Bilingualism is enshrined in the Constitution of Cameroon since September 1st, 1961, when English and French were recognised as official languages, with equal status in every sphere of national life. Bilingualism was chosen, not only as an instrument to ensure equity, but also as a pivot of socio-economic integration for the two entities, Francophone and Anglophones, who opted for unification.